The Viral Factory

Infobox Company
name = The Viral Factory

type = Public
genre =
foundation = London, United Kingdom (2001)
founder = Ed Robinson, Matt Smith
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location = London, United Kingdom Los Angeles, United States
locations =
area_served = Global
key_people =
industry = Viral Marketing
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homepage = [http://www.theviralfactory.com/ theviralfactory.com]
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The Viral Factory is a full service viral marketing agency based in Shoreditch, United Kingdom and Los Angeles, United States

History

The Viral Factory was founded in 2001 by Ed Robinson and Matt Smith. Their first venture was a collaboration with Adam Stewart to create Headrush [cite web | url = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBOoFHuQYTQ | title = Youtube - Headrush (The Viral Factory - Self Promotion)] , an in-house promotional viral which gained the fledging company its first web audience. Another collaboration with Adam Stewart; Moontruth [cite web | url = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=960vBSKT-Pw | title = Youtube - Moon Truth] aided in establishing the viral as a tool for public and media notoriety.One of The Viral Factory’s first major corporate campaigns was a series of virals for the United States brand Trojan Condoms U.K / European launch. This in turn led to an increase in global blue chip clients and further viral campaigns with brands such as Microsoft, Ford and Coca-Cola.

tyle and content

The Viral Factory work on feeding basic human emotions with anarchic versions of reality to get their clients message across, often using a mockumentry film technique or computer generated animation to convince the viewer that the footage is real. [cite web | url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZkNJ7l35a| title=Youtube - Cloverfield Oil Rig]

The Viral Factory has, on occasions, used ‘covert seeding’ to amplify the supposed authenticity of their footage, particularly in the Levi ‘Freedom to Move’ [cite web | url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I2vgtN9dzQ | title=Youtube - Levi Jeans - Freedom To Move] campaign of 2006.

Notable Clients

*Trojan Condoms — The Trojan campaign parodied Olympic events, substituting them with sexual "sports", such as Pelvic Power Lifting and Masters of Precision Vaulting.
*BBC Health and Education — GI Jonny is a parody of a retro children’s action toy television commercial. Sponsored by the BBC to raise AIDS awareness amongst 16-25 year old British males, staring 'GI Jonny' and 'Captain Bareback'.
*Samsung — An animation created using the product to illustrate its functions.

Controversy

*‘Moontruth’ Playing in to the hands of conspiracy theorists, a film was leaked to the public that supposedly proved that man had never in fact landed on the moon and that the moon landing was in fact staged in a television studio. This viral hoax led to 3,000 people, taken in by the footage, calling NASA to complain about their dishonesty in saying that they had conquered the moon.
*Ford Ka campaign. A viral entitled ‘Cat’ for the Ford Ka found notoriety in 2006. Depicting a cat getting its head chopped off in the ‘Ka’ roof. The viral caused outrage which led to the advertising agency that allegedly commissioned the viral and Ford, the client, to claim that they had never approved the virals’ release. [cite web | url=http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/index.cfm?featureID=1249| title=Digital Arts Online - Features - The Viral Factory]

In popular culture

In November 2006 The Viral Factory produced a list of the top ten viral videos of all time [cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6187554.stm | title=BBC News Online - Top Ten Viral Videos] which was widely reported in global media, establishing The Viral Factory as unofficial ambassadors for internet phenomena.

Awards

*Cannes Cyber Gold Lion [cite web | url=http://www.canneslions.com/| title=Cannes Lions] : Trojan Games (2004), Revenge Phillips amBX (2006)
*EPICA [cite web | url=http://www.epica-awards.com/| title=Epica Awards] Gold : Axe/Lynx ‘Ravenstoke’ (2005)
*London International Awards Gold, Viral : ‘Fingerskilz’ Hewlett Packard (2007)
*Webby Awards Non for profit People’s Voice Winner : ‘GI Jonny’ BBC Learning (2008)
*D&AD Yellow Pencil, Viral Animation & Motion Graphics & YouTube 2007 awards nomination, Most creative for ‘How we met’ Samsung Electronics (2008)

Further reading

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/sep/11/newmedia.advertising The Guardian Online - New Media & Advertising]
* [http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2007/tc20070116_930230.htm Business Week - Viral Video Grows Up]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6187554.stm BBC News - Top Ten Viral Videos]
* [http://www.mycustomer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=133055 MyCustomer - "Whassup with the sales?" The challenges of viral marketing]
* [http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/index.cfm?featureID=1249 DigitalArts - The Viral Factory]
* [http://www.brandchannel.com/careers_profile.asp?cr_id=80 BrandChannel - Toni Smith]

ee also

* Viral marketing
* Viral video
* List of Internet phenomena
* Webby Awards

External links

* [http://www.theviralfactory.com The Viral Factory]

References